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Punishment on MBB

The portents weren't good for the TH at 714 MBB (3br/3ba, 1675 sq. ft.) when it hit the market last April.

As we noted in "Three Comebackers, Different Fates," the shortie was poised for a substantial loss against its April 2006 acquisition at $1.355m. Last year's start at $989k was brutal, and a later drop to $899k set up a loss of value of at least one-third against the bubble price.

All these months later, a sale that closed last week represents an even deeper chasm. 714 MBB sold for $776k, a stark 43% drop in less than 5 years, and $579k in vanished equity.

Pay too much at a market peak, and be punished.

This was one of the first homes to be prominently featured at MBC, back in May 2007, in a post called "A Tale of Two Townhomes." That story concerned a superior neighboring property in the same complex, 710 MBB, which ultimately sold for $1.142m in July 2007, nearly $250k less than the list price on 714 MBB at the time. Clearly one neighbor had badly undercut the other.

It took almost 4 years to come to the end of this tale – a very long story arc even for MBC, where it seems we've got some pretty long ones sometimes. But if you want to view this through the prism of some sort of neighbor-to-neighbor combat, look at one of the big losers as the short sale at 714 MBB wrapped up: the neighbor at 710 that made a rescue sale for 714 impossible in 2007.

The sale at the less-improved unit at 714 still drags the potential market value at 710 down by $200k-$250k. That's a nasty way to say "adios."